In this essay I will be discussing the similarities and differences between
the character Alice from Walt Disney's 'Alice in Wonderland' and the character
Chihiro (Sen) from Hayao Miyazaki's film Spirited Away. These characters are
both of comparable ages and their personalities share many qualities which go
through the same metamorphosis towards the end of the films. Both characters
experience new, exciting and even dangerous situations that challenge them
more than they could ever have imagined before. Miyazaki's typical Shojo
character is notably independent and active, courageously confronting the
variety of obstacles before her in a manner that might well be described as
stereotypically masculine, as opposed to the classic Shojo character, which
tends to be passive or dreamy with ultrafemininity. However, Disney's typical
female character is usually not nearly as forthright as a Miyazaki character and
they tend to be more passive and less 'fiery'. The character Alice from Alice in
Wonderland seems to be one of the exceptions.
English: Screenshot of Alice from the trailer for ...
Actress Daveigh Chase
Miyazaki Airport (KMI/RJFM)Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away came for many with built-in
expectations. After the exhausting but highly successful production of Princess
Mononoke (1998), the director announced his retirement from filmmaking. It
was a promise he reneged on when meeting the ten-year old daughter of a
friend. This girl provided the inspiration for Chihiro, the little heroine at the
centre of Spirited Away, a film aimed at ten-year old girls but universal enough
in its appeal to break every box office record on its home turf, going on to not
only become the highest grossing film of all time in Japan, but attaining that
status in record time.
What struck Miyazaki about the real-life girl who served as the
inspiration for Chihiro was not only the fact that she seemed jaded to the
attention her parents were giving her (something he subsequently...